


Will Of One

by taichara



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-01-31
Packaged: 2018-05-17 09:29:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5863891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taichara/pseuds/taichara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes saving the world before Cloud's life can finish crashing and pulling itself together. </p><p> But he remembers, now, what's most important of all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Will Of One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kunagiri](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kunagiri/gifts).



The problem with untangling yourself -- if one happened to ask Cloud -- was that the world didn't bother to wait until you've finished before it came crashing down on your head like Meteor itself.

Take the morning's dawning enlightenment, for example.

_How do I ..._

_It's already been a long time, so how do I ..._

Zack was dead.

He _knew_ that, now. Like a hammer blow to the skull, he knew. Oh, the revelation had bubbled back up in a stew of regained memory and Tifa's prompting and Lifestream-induced psychotherapy, but that was _different_. Something he'd had to acknowledge in order to reclaim his own identity, his own _self_ , and stop being some strange, unstable patchwork of memory and made-up frankensteined existence ...

And after that, they were all chasing Sephiroth's madness to the end of the world, and there was no time for reality to sink in.

Which was, Cloud reasoned, why the world was safe -- and he was holed up in a back cabin in the Highwind staring at the ceiling while silent tears slid down to soak the mattress.

_Zack ..._

_You carried me through failure after fuckup, and you always nudged me forward again. Didn't let me give up, even when I wanted to break and run._

Didn't let him give up, no; Zack was a supporting pillar of evil smiles and shaggy mane. And so much more than that.

 

_* 'There's still so much you can do, Cloud. Stay and enlist, you'll see. And I'll still show you swordplay -- heh' *_

_* stealthy embraces and devilish kisses -- and horseplay noogies *_

_* 'See? They keep sending you out as backup for SOLDIER. That means they trust you. ShinRa knows you can do it.' *_

_* 'If you leave, I'm gonna miss you ...' *_

 

The memories blended, bled into the still hazy horror of Zack's death -- seeing him lunge, stubborn, protective; the bloody horror as ShinRa mowed him down, as enlisted troops (just like him!) turned on them both ...

... and Zack's parting words, faint but unyielding. A single wish: to live for him.

_So I erased you. I tried to be you and I rewrote history like you were never there._

_No more._

Through the last of the tears, Cloud's gaze hardened like sapphire.

_I'll live for you, Zack. I'll carry you with me. Your pep talks, your touch. What you gave me ... I know I can help fix the world with that._

_And I'll show just how much I can do._


End file.
